Chapter 10:
Author's Notes: Okay so I only got one review for the last chapter (thanks lalalalee) and I was a little disappointed. If this story really isn't worth continuing please just tell me. I won't get upset or anything because constructive criticism will always make you a better writer. Maybe my chapters are too long? Or maybe there's not enough Spashley? Whatever it is, if you tell me I'll definitely try to fix it but I won't know unless you review and tell me. Anywhoo, I've got another chapter almost ready so if responses are good for this chapter I'll post it up later tonight or tomorrow. Good reading all!
Meereen was as large as Astapor and Yunkai combined. Like the cities before her, she was built of bricks of many colours. Her walls were high and in better repair, studded with bastions and anchored by defensive towers at every angle. Behind them could be seen the top of the Great Pyramid, a monstorous thing eight hundred feet tall with a towering bronze harpy at its top.
"The harpy is a craven thing," Daario Naharis said when he saw it. "She has a woman's heart and a chicken's legs. Small wonder her sons hide behind their walls."
But their hero did not hide. He rode out of the city gates, armored and mounted upon a white charger. The lance he bore was fourteen feet long and his hair was shaped and teased and lacquered into two great curling ram's horns. Back and forth he rode beneath the walls, challenging the besiegers to send a champion forth to meet him in single combat.
Her bloodriders were in such a fever to go meet him that they almost came to blows. "Blood of my blood," Ashley told them, "your place is here by me. Ignore him he will soon be gone." Aggo, Jhogo and Rakharo were brave warriors but they were young and too valuable to risk. They kept her khalasar together and were her best scouts too. Ser Jorah and Arstan Whitebeard were arguing over Ashley's decision to keep her bloodriders back. "I have heard enough." Ashley had enough troubles plaguing her. Her people were starving during the march. The Great Masters of Meereen had withdrawn before Ashley's advance, harvesting all they could and burning the rest. Scorched fields and poisoned wells had greeted her at every turn. Worst of all, they had nailed a slave child up on every milepost along the coast road from Yunkai, nailed them up still living with their entrails hanging out and their arms always pointing the way to Meereen. Spencer, having ridden a little ahead of Ashley, had seen this and asked Daario to order the children be taken down before Ashley saw them, but Ashley had countermanded him as soon as she was told. "I will see them," she said. "I will see every one, count them and look upon their faces. And I will remember." By the time they came to Meereen sitting beside her river, the count had stood at one hundred and sixty-three. I will have this city, Ashley pledged to herself once more.
Ashley thought back quickly to when she had told Spencer to remain behind at the ships with the other handmaids. She was not happy, Ashley mused. However she had been firm. She did not want Spencer to be in another situation such as that at Astapor even though Spencer had proven herself quick with a sword. The less blood she sees around me, maybe the less horror she will see in me.
Ashley watched the hero, Oznak zo Pahl, dismount his white charger, undo his robes, pull out his manhood, and direct a stream of urine in the general direction of the olive grove where she sat with her khalasar. He was still pissing when Daario Naharis rode up, sword in hand. "Shall I cut that off for you and stuff it down his mouth, Your Grace?" His tooth shone gold amidst the blue of his forked beard.
"It's his city I want not his manhood." She was growing angry, however. If I could ignore this any longer, my own people will think me weak.
High on the walls of Meereen, the jeers had grown louder, and now hundreds of defenders were taking their lead from the hero and pissing down through the ramparts to show their contempt for the besiegers. They are pissing on slaves, to show how little they fear us, she thought. They will remember my name after this.
"This challenge must be met," Artstan said.
"It will be." Ashley said, as the hero tucked his penis away again. "Tell Strong Belwas I have need of him."
"Why that one, Khaleesi?" Rakharo demanded of her as Strong Belwas lumbered from the grove toward Oznak zo Pahl. "He is fat and stupid."
"Strong Belwas was a slave here in the fighting pits. If this highborn Oznak should fall to such the Great Masters will be shamed, while if he wins…well, it is a poor victory for on so noble, one that Meereen can take no pride in." And unlike Ser Jorah, Daario, Brown Ben and her three bloodriders, the eunuch did not lead troops, plan battles or give her counsel. He does nothing but eat and boast and bellow at Arstan. Belwas was the man she could spare most easily. And it was time she learned what sort of man Magister Illyrio had sent her.
Once Belwas was in front of the hero, Oznak zo Pahl lowered his lance and charged. Belwas stopped with his legs spread wide. In one hand was his small round shield, in the other the curved sword Artsan had tended to with such care. "We should have given him chainmail," Ashley said, suddenly anxious.
"Mail would only slow him," said Ser Jorah. "They wear no armor in the fighting pits. It's blood the crowds come to see."
Belwas stood still as the horse charged at him. He's going to be impaled, Ashley thought…as the eunuch spun sideways. As quick as a blink of an eye, the horseman wheeled again and raised his lance. "What is he doing?" Ashley demanded.
"Giving the mob a show," Ser Jorah said. "That lance is too long. All Belwas needs to do is to avoid the point. Instead of trying to split him so prettily, the fool should ride right over him."
Oznak zo Pahl charged a third time, and now Ashley could see plainly that he was riding past Belwas, the way a Westeroi knight might ride at an opponent in a tilt, rather than at him, like a Dothkari riding down a foe.
Meereen's hero tried to anticipate Belwas' movement this time, and swung his lance sideways at the very last second, but Belwas had anticipated this as well, and this time he dropped down instead of spinning sideways. The lance passed harmlessly over his head. And suddenly Belwas was rolling and bringing his word around in an arc. They heard the charger scream as the blade bit into his legs, and then the horse was falling, the hero tumbling form his saddle.
A sudden silence swept along the brick parapets of Meereen. Now it has Ashley's people screaming and cheering.
Oznak leapt clear of his horse and drew is sword. Steel sang against steel, too fast for Ashley to follow the blows. It could not have been a dozen heartbeats before Belwas' chest was awash with blood from a slice below his chest, and Oznak zo Pahl had a sword planted right between his ram's horns. The eunuch wrenched the blade loose and parted the hero's head from his body in three savage blows. He held it up high for the Meereenese to see, then flung it toward the city gates and let it bounce and roll across the sand.
"So much for the hero of Meereen," said Daario, laughing.
"A victory with no meaning," Ser Jorah continued. "We will not win Meereen by killing its defenders one at time."
"No," Ashley agreed, "but I am pleased we killed at least one." Ashley stepped down to inspect Belwas' wound and once she had a healer taking care of him, she then lead her captains and commanders inside her pavilion for their council.
"I must have this city," she told them, sitting crosslegged on a pile of cushions, her dragons all about her. Irri and Jhiqui poured wine.
"I've had a look at the landward walls, and I see no point of weaknesses." Said Ser Jorah Mormont. "Given time, we might be able to mine beneath a tower and make a breach, but what do we eat while we're digging? Our stores are all but exhausted."
"No weaknesses in the landward walls?" said Ashley. "Does that mean we might attack from the river or the sea?"
"With three ships? Unless the wall along the river is crumbling that's just a better way to die."
"What about siege towers? Nicholas once told tales of such, I know they can be made."
"From wood, Your Grace. The slavers have burnt every tree within twenty leagues of here." Ser Jorah said.
"Did you see them bronze heads above the gates?" asked Brown Ben Plumm. "Rows of harpy heads with open mouths? The Meereenese can squirt boiling oil out of their mouths and cook your axemen where they stand."
Ashley sighed "Perhaps we can starve the city out."
Ser Jorah looked unhappy. "We'll starve long before they do, Your Grace."
"Then what do you advise, Ser Jorah?"
"You will not like it."
"I would hear it all the same."
"As you wish. I say, let this city be. You cannot free every slave in the world, Khaleesi. Your war is in Westeros."
"I have not forgotten Westeros." Ashley dreamed of it some nights, the fabled land that she had never seen. Sometimes Spencer would be with her. "If I let Meereen's old brick walls defeat me so easily, though, how will I ever take the great stone castles of Westeros?"
"As Aegon did," Ser Jorah said. "With fire. By the time we reach the Seven Kingdoms, your dragons will be grown. And we will have all the things we lack now, siege towers and trebuchets as well…you stopped at Astapor to buy an army, not to start a war. Save your army for the Seven Kingdoms, my queen. Leave Meereen to the Meereenese and march west for Pentos."
"Defeated?" said Ashley, bristling.
"When cowards hide behind walls, it is they who are defeated Khaleesi," Ko Jhogo said.
"Ser Jorah, you say we have no food left. If I march west, how can I feed my freedmen?" Ashley asked.
"You can't. I am sorry, Khaleesi. They must feed themselves or starve. Many and more will die along the march, that is hard, yes, but there is no way to save them. We need to put this scorched earth well behind us."
Ashley had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. "No," she said. "I will not march my people off to die. There must be some way into this city."
"I know a way." Brown Ben Plumm stroked his speckled grey-and-white beard. "Sewers."
"Sewers? What do you mean?"
"Great brick sewers empty into the Skahazadhan, carrying the city's waste. There might be a way in for a few. That was how I escaped Meereen, after Scarb lost his head." Brown Ben made a face. "The smell has never left me. I dream of it some nights."
Ser Jorah looked dubious. "Easier to go out than in, it would seem to me. The sewers empty into the river you say? That would mean the mouths are right below the walls."
"And closed with iron gates." Brown Ben admitted, "though some have rusted through, else I would have drowned in shit. Once inside it is a long foul climb in pitch dark through a maze of brick."
Daario Naharis laughed. "if any man were fool enough to try this, every slaver in Meereen would smell them the moment they emerged."
Brown Ben shrugged "Her grace asked if there was a way in, so I told her…but Ben Plumm isn't going down in them sewers again. If there's others want to try it, though, they're welcome."
Aggo, Jhogo and Grey Worm all tried to speak at once but Ashley raised her hand for silence. "These sewers do not sound promising. I must think on this some more. Return to your duties." Ashley lay back on her cushions when her last captain left. "If you were grown," she said to Drogon, scratching him between the horns, "I'd fly you over the walls and melt that harpy down to slag." But it would be years before her dragons were large enough to ride. And when they are, who shall ride them? The dragon has three heads, but I only have one. She thought of Spencer. I see her look at me sometimes…
To be sure, she was just as guilty. Ashley found herself stealing looks at the blonde when they all gathered, and sometimes at night she remembered the way her teeth would sparkle when she smiled. That, and her eyes. Her bright blue eyes. On the road from Yunkai, Spencer had brought her a flower or a sprig of some plant every evening when they met…to help her learn the land, she said. She tried to spare me the sight of the dead children too. She should not have done that, but she meant it kindly. And Spencer made her laugh, something which no one else did.
Ashley tried to imagine what it would be like if she allowed Spencer to kiss her, the way Jorah had kissed her on the ship. The thought was exciting and disturbing, both at once. It is too great a risk. She does not tell me all. Ashley had noticed they way Spencer seemed to avoid any mention of her family or where she was from. Even Ser Jorah became as if he was ignorant of Ashley's curiosity when she asked him about Spencer. Could I love Spencer? Even through all that? What would it mean, if I took her into my bed? Would that make her one of the heads of the dragon? Ser Jorah would be angry, she knew, but he could never be what she wanted, or needed.
But these were foolish thoughts. She had a city to take, and dreaming of kisses and a handmaid's blue eyes would not help her breach the walls of Meereen. I am the blood of the dragon, Ashley reminded herself. "Missandei," she called, "have my silver saddled."
The little scribe bowed. "As Your Grace commands. Shall I call your bloodriders as well?"
"We'll take Arstan. I do not mean to leave the camps," answered Ashley, still distracted by her thoughts.
They had left their horses near where her pavilion had been raised. As she approached her silver she noticed it was already saddled. Turning to her scribe, Ashley asked "Who…"
"I did, Your Grace," Spencer stated as she stepped away from her own horse.
"Spencer? What…I ordered you to stay at the ships. Why are you here?" Ashley asked, feeling her temper rise with Spencer disobedience. "Missandei, get Arstan. I will be waiting for him here." She faced Spencer again, for an answer.
"I know, Your Grace," Spencer began.
"Ashley." Ashley interrupted.
"Ashley," Spencer nodded at the correction. "I am sorry I disobeyed you but did you think I would be fine with waiting for you at the ships? Not knowing whether you are taken care of or if these slavers have gotten their desires and killed you?"
"I am not alone," Ashley replied.
"No you're not but people die in wars surrounded by others do they not?"
Ashley sighed. Spencer really did have a strong will, one that irritated Ashley at times, but aroused her at other times. "You have to stop disobeying me. Soon people will begin to question my judgment if you forever disobey my commands."
"Forgive me," Spencer said.
Ashley smiled. "All is forgiven but never again. I do not want to seem as if I favour you above all others, even if I do. Come Arstan has arrived."
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